For many years, Barcelona’s layout was determined by a vertical axis running from the sea up to the hills. You lived on the sea side or the mountain side of the street; you walked uphill towards the mountain, downhill to the sea. And in the city’s cuisine—albeit with noteworthy exceptions—fish restaurants turned their backs on mushrooms, game, and berries; in turn, grilled chops and beef stews did their best to snub their daunting rivals: prawns, clams, soles, even the occasional bold oyster.

But times have changed. Whether we like it or not, the shady harbor town we remember is now a thing of the past. The upscale districts on the hillsides are no longer as formal and homogeneous as they once were, either. From Avinguda Gaudí all the way to the Poble Sec, across the entire Eixample, you hear the echoes of other cities: Lima, Boston, Guayaquil, Tokyo, Bangalore.

Today, in Barcelona, even the best traditional restaurants have gradually been introducing elements from these broader horizons. Other venues with more inquisitive chefs, both upcoming and established, explore all sorts of combinations of the new currents that now flow through our city.

If you’re longing to experience the city’s seasoned classics, in this case with a strong scent of the sea, you will find the market’s best fish and shellfish at El Passadís d’en Pep, near Santa María del Mar: a restaurant without a menu where they make their suggestions and you let yourself be pampered. For unabashed budgets only. And for those of you with a passion for traditional rice dishes, for about 50 € you can enjoy the excellent options on the menu at Els Pescadors, in the midst of the Poble Nou seaside district: green rice with cod cheeks or red rice with fish and peppers are just some of their winning combinations.

In Barcelona you can also find tapas to please every palate. What for many businesses has become a slap-and-dash formula for trapping tourists, for some chefs has offered an opportunity to work their traditional standards into new forms. Cañete, Suculent, and Coure are good options for sampling a playful variety of carefully crafted, imaginative tapas.

Ginés Gorriz, bulthaup Barcelona, bach 7

Like in so many other cities, the influence of Asian cuisine is overwhelming and well-deserved in Barcelona. Located at less than 50 meters from the Cathedral, Shunka offers a traditional Japanese menu in a pleasant atmosphere, and further up, in the Eixample, at Me restaurant, chef and owner Thang will recommend dishes that merge Vietnamese flavors with twists from New Orleans or Barcelona. However, the major local landmark for Japanese cuisine in recent years has been Dos Palillos, located near the MACBA museum, which has earned a Michelin star thanks to several chefs trained at El Bulli. When you sit down at the inner dining counter you are not only prepared to enjoy its utterly delicate flavors, but also to admire the skill of the great Takeshi at work. The tasting menu (75 or 90€) is a memorable experience.

Last but not least, in a category all of its own, we find Ferran Adrià’s post-Bulli cosmos, offering five separate options in which the Japanese touch is also present. 41º, managed by Albert Adrià, is located in the Paral·lel area, and is the closest you can come to his brother Ferran’s Bulli in an urban environment. In the same neighborhood, Tickets offers an introduction to Adrià’s tapas (about 60€); make sure to reserve through their website at least 3 months in advance. But that is not all: nearby you will also find the Pakta, featuring Peruvian-Japanese cuisine; Espai Kru, where raw fish rules, and the Bodega 1900, a vermutería that stays open until 8 pm.

The mountain, the sea, north and south, east and west: Barcelona.

More information:

El Passadis d’en Pep

Els Pescadors

Cañete

Suculent

Coure

Shunka

Dos palillos

41º, Tickets, Pakta, Espai kru, Bodega 1900